Posts tagged: filthy rich & catflap

RICHIE: Maybe it’s a producer with a wonderful part.EDDIE: Oo-er!RICHIE: Eddie, I said wonderful part, not attractive willy.

When talking about Filthy Rich & Catflap, there’s many routes I could have taken. I could have focused on it being an ahead-of-its-time dissection on the nature of celebrity. I could have talked about alternative comedy butting heads with the old showbiz. I could mention the endless fourth wall breaking – done far more than The Young Ones or Bottom ever did.

Or I could start with a knob gag. OK, fine, I’ll go with that.

Of course, Filthy Rich & Catflap and early Red Dwarf are very much sister shows. Both were part of Paul Jackson’s pot of money at BBC Manchester, and were both recorded in BBC Manchester’s Studio A at Oxford Road. And both shared many of the same crew. As you take a look at this video from the very end of the series – featuring the show gleefully knocking down the last remaining barrier between them and the viewer – see how many people who also worked on Red Dwarf you can spot.

But that isn’t why I’ve chosen this video for this month’s G&TV. Here’s a fun fact: did you know you can see the outside of Red Dwarf – that is, the hull of the ship itself – in those closing moments of Filthy Rich & Catflap? Despite it being recorded a year before Red Dwarf?

“When I say my pussy, I really mean my…” Ah, Filthy Rich & Catflap. Destined forever to be seen as “that one between The Young Ones and Bottom that wasn’t nearly as good as either”. Even the blurb on the back of the DVD box can’t resist bookending with the comparisons; it starts with Concieved […]